The present invention relates to an ink jet printer, and more particularly to the structure of an ink jet printer.
In a prior art ink jet printer which does not eject ink in a non-print mode, the ink is solidified around a nozzle and the ejection of the ink is prevented if a non-printing period lasts too long. Accordingly, the non-print mode time period is measured and if the non-print mode time period lasts over a predetermined time period the ink jet nozzle is scavenged in order to prevent the solidification of the ink.
Recently, a multi-color ink jet printer which has a number of nozzles for inks of different colors and which selectively drives the nozzles to print characters in desired colors has been proposed. When the scavenging means are to be provided in such an ink jet printer, as many such means as the number of nozzles are required. Thus, the larger the number of nozzles, the more complex is the circuit configuration.